The advent of computers and their continued technological advancement has revolutionized the manner in which people work and live. One such advancement is that of multimedia presentations, where presentations that used to be made in person (e.g., college lectures, workplace training sessions, etc.) can be provided to a computer user as multimedia data (e.g., video, audio, text, and/or animation data). Today, such presentations are primarily video and audio, but a richer, broader digital media era is emerging. Multimedia presentations provide many benefits, such as allowing the presentation data to be created at a single time yet be presented to different users at different times and in different locations throughout the world.
These multimedia presentations are provided to a user as synchronized media. Synchronized media refers to multiple media objects that share a common timeline. Video and audio are examples of synchronized media—each is a separate data stream with its own data structure, but the two data streams are played back in synchronization with each other. Virtually any media type can have a timeline. For example, an image object can change like an animated .gif file, text can change and move, and animation and digital effects can happen over time. This concept of synchronizing multiple media types is gaining greater meaning and currency with the emergence of more sophisticated media composition frameworks implied by MPEG-4, Dynamic HTML, and other media playback environments.
The term “streaming” is used to indicate that the data representing the various media types is provided over a network to a client computer on a real-time, as-needed basis, rather than being pre-delivered in its entirety before playback. Thus, the client computer renders streaming data as it is received from a network server, rather than waiting for an entire “file” to be delivered.
Multimedia presentations may also include “annotations” relating to the multimedia presentation. An annotation is data (e.g., audio, text, video, etc.) that corresponds to a multimedia presentation. Annotations can be added by anyone with appropriate access rights to the annotation system. These annotations typically correspond to a particular temporal location in the multimedia presentation and can provide a replacement for much of the “in-person” interaction or “classroom discussion” that is lost when the presentation is not made “in-person” or “live”. As part of an annotation, a user can comment on a particular point, to which another user (or lecturer/presenter) can respond in a subsequent annotation. This process can continue, allowing a “classroom discussion” to occur via these annotations.
However, in order to gain wide range acceptance of multimedia presentations and the use of annotations with such presentations, a user-friendly manner for interacting with the presentations should be available.
Additionally, it would be useful to be able to notify individuals when new annotations are added. In some systems, the author or other “owner” of a multimedia presentation can be notified by electronic mail (email) whenever someone adds a new annotation to the presentation. However, there are several problems with such systems. One such problem is that the author or creator of the annotation has no control over (or perhaps even knowledge of) who is being notified of the new annotation. Another problem is that in order for the author/owner of the presentation to view the annotation or to access the multimedia presentation, the author/owner must manually access the multimedia presentation and manually locate the portion corresponding to the new annotation.
The invention described below addresses these and other disadvantages of current annotations systems, facilitating annotation creation and notification via email.